I- 



NOTABLE ANNIVERSARIES OF THE 



MONTH. 



In July, 335 years ago, the great at- 

 tempt of Spam to crush England, once 

 and for all, failed, and the wrecked 

 and shattered galleons of the " Invinc- 

 ible Armada " strewn along the shores 

 of the land their King, had hoped to 

 conquer were the visible sign that Bri- 

 tain was henceforth mistress of the seas. 

 Other notable events were the Battle of 

 the Boyne, July 1st, 1690, in which Wil- 

 liam of Orange, routed James II. 's army 

 and crushed all hope of his winning 

 back the throne. On July 2nd, 1644, 

 the fierce battle of Marston Moor was 

 fought. In the end Cromwell's Iron- 

 sides triumphed, and the Royalist cause 

 was ruined in the North of England. 

 The great battle of Gettysburg, fought 

 on July 3rd, 1863, was the turning point 

 of the American Civil War, General Lee 

 sustaining his first severe defeat there. 

 After a fearful siege of five weeks 

 Jerusalem was taken by the Crusaders 

 on July 5th, 1 100. This feat had not 

 much effect on European history. It was 

 re-taken by the Saracens eighty-eight 

 years later. The ill-fated Duke of 

 Monmouth, with his peasant army, was 

 defeated at Sedgemoor on July 6th, 

 1685. He was executed shortly after- 

 wards, and Judge Jeffries sat in judg- 

 ment on thousands of his adherents at 

 the Bloody Assizes. This was the last 

 battle fought in England, just 223 

 years ago. Sir Thomas Moore, Henry 



VIII. 's great Chancellor, the author of 

 " Utopia," was executed on July 7th, 

 1535. Peter the Hermit, that remark- 

 able character whose preaching of the 

 Crusades convulsed Europe for cen- 

 turies, died on July 8th, 11 15. Henry 

 Hallam, the great historian, was born 

 at Windsor, on July 9th, 1778. The 

 bombardment of Alexandria on July 

 nth, 1882, was the first military act in 

 the British occupation of Egypt. The 

 atrocious massacre of women and chil- 

 dren by the order of Nana Sahib took 

 place on July 15th, 1857, at Cawnpore. 

 Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great artist 

 and first President of the Royal 

 Academy, was born July 16th, 1723. 

 William Makepeace Thackeray was 

 born at Calcutta on July 18th, 181 1. Sir 

 Sidney Smith, who had the unique dis- 

 tinction of being the first commander 

 to inflict a defeat on Napoleon, was 

 born July 21st, 1764, Wellington de- 

 feated the French under Marmont at 

 Salamanca on July 22nd, 1 81 2, and 

 entered Madrid shortly after. Gibral- 

 tar, that mighty fortress which com- 

 mands the entrance to the Mediter- 

 ranean, was captured by the English on 

 July 24th, 1704. Martin Van Tromp, 

 the great Dutch Admiral, and antagon- 

 ist of Blake, was killed on July 31st, 

 1653, m a three days' naval battle off 

 the coast of Holland. 



The Declaration of American Independence, July 4, 1776. 



On July 4th, 1776, the Congress of 

 the United Colonies in America passed 

 the great Declaration of Independence, 

 only three votes being cast against this 

 formal throwing off of British control. 

 The document was not actually signed 

 by the representatives of the States until 

 several days later. At the time this action 

 seemed one of reckless folly. What 

 chance had these sparsely peopled, dis- 



united colonies against the greatest 

 naval power in the world, supported by 

 veteran armies, seasoned in fierce Euro- 

 pean strife ! But Washington suc- 

 ceeded. He created an army out of a 

 mob of undisciplined militiamen, de- 

 spite terrible difficulties of transporta- 

 tion, commissariat, dissensions, and, 

 above all, finance, and forced England 

 to recognise the United States of 



